Tina wrote on the CI Liftoff page this about NT:
Why Am I So Into Non-Targeted CI?
1. It is easier.
2. It requires next to no planning.
3. The kids like it better than my old way of telling stories.
4. It is more interesting. I remember the specifics of the stories. It is more fun to create the stories. They are deeper, richer, more unique.
5. Using artwork is so powerful. It leads the lesson. I know that we could use artwork with targeted stories too, because I used to do it. But STARTING with the artwork just seems to supercharge kids’ imaginations.
6. It forces us to assess in a way that all can succeed. It forces us to assess for proficiency, not word lists. Thus we get out of the trap of the conscious mind.
7. It is more equitable. Kids who do not do so well with lists of words and conscious learning do better. I know because I used to assess the kids on the words I had “covered” or “targeted” and there were always some kids who didn’t”get it” and did not make a very good score on the quiz.
8. It is easy to learn. There are fewer moving parts. There are skills, not steps. There are ways of communicating, not rules. I firmly believe that NT work will help us help more teachers find success and longevity with comprehension-based teaching. I believe that it will help to change the profession.
9. It is limitless. Bounded only by the mandates that we make ourselves comprehensible and talk about something the kids find interesting, we can explore so many things to do in class. I have found a lot of new ideas this year, because I finally gave up completely the idea that my job is to talk about anything in particular or use any particular words.
10. The kids acquire anyway without all the stress on me. It has been almost an entire year of NT work with my beginners and they are at about exactly the same level of overall proficiency as previous classes. Maybe slightly higher. And we have had a lot more fun getting there too! Also, their vocabularies are, for the most part, richer.